CAMBRIDGE CITY, Indiana — With the severe flooding in eastern Indiana, it could take months, even years, for people to clean up.
Officials with the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency said the severe flooding damaged at least 250 buildings and destroyed five more, and that’s just their community.
News Center 7’s John Bedell spent the day in Cambridge City, Indiana, which was one of the hardest hit areas.
The flooding last week had a statewide impact in Indiana. Last Wednesday, when News Center 7 visited Cambridge City, Bedell said the water would have been over his head in some spots.
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The floodwater dragged debris up against a fence and all the waterlogged stuff onto the curb.
News Center 7 talked with a woman and asked if she lived here. She said, “I used to.” She was one of the people on the block picking up after the massive flooding.
Melissa Parker said, “It’s just pure devastation. It’s something you see on TV that you think is never going to happen in your hometown.”
Parker said, “I’ve been here since 9 am this morning.” She took News Center 7 inside her uncle’s house and showed where the flood water was.
“Almost to my neck, so actually if you can see on this window. Here is a water line of how far the water had risen,” Parker said.
And how her family now works to clean up what they left behind.
“We are all here pulling together to get this place cleaned up, gutted, walls out, insulation out, getting it all dried up. So then hopefully we can try to rebuild for him, and we can get him back in his home,” Parker said.
Phil Shank of Cambridge City said, “Complete disaster. Everything we have is gone, nothing but mud.”
Phil and his wife, Lori, are sorting through their stuff and salvaging what they can in their garage. Phil said he’s lived here for 42 years and grew up in the house. He doesn’t want to leave, but says they must now.
“That’s the only choice we got because we can’t afford to put a bunch of money in this house again, and have it flood again. Buy a house on a hill, I guess,” Shank said.
The rain in Cambridge City caused the Whitewater River, which cuts through downtown, to overflow its banks. The storm was relentless.
People in the community told News Center 7 that the community is resilient.
“Hard to see it right now, maybe. But we will pull through this as a community. We will rebuild, and one day we can look back and think, how did we ever get so far, but we will do it,” Parker said.
The Wayne County EMA told News Center 7 that countywide the flood destroyed five buildings, four of them in Cambridge City.
They said in Cambridge City, they have confirmed 174 buildings with major damage, and another 71 with minor damage.
If you have been impacted by the flood water, the EMA wants you to call Indiana 211. That number will help state officials give FEMA an accurate scope of the damage across Indiana.
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